When Is National Women’s Day and how Chicago events mark March
Chicago’s March calendar is filling up with Women’s History Month programming, including a limited-run “The Women Who Built Chicago” bus tour led by urban historian Shermann “Dilla” Thomas in partnership with Ancestry. As of Saturday at 11: 00 a. m. ET, local listings also include concerts, performances and community events positioned as tributes to women’s contributions across the city and suburbs, prompting readers to ask: when is national women’s day?
The event schedules published for early and late March do not specify a date for National Women’s Day, but they do detail multiple Women’s History Month activities—ranging from a public bus tour on March 21, March 22 and March 28 to recurring weekend markets and stage events.
“The Women Who Built Chicago” tour dates: March 21, 22 and 28
Thomas teamed up with consumer genomics company Ancestry to bring “The Women Who Built Chicago” bus tour to the city for a limited time in March, which is Women’s History Month. The tour is scheduled to be open to the public on March 21, March 22 and March 28.
The tour’s focus is nine Chicago women described as advancing education, civil rights, the arts and health care. The list of figures highlighted in the event description includes singer Dinah Washington; DuSable Museum of African American History co-founder Margaret Burroughs; and entrepreneur, philanthropist and activist Madame C. J. Walker, among others.
Organizers say the new tour combines Ancestry records with physical historical locations, and it includes five stops with Thomas supported by historical context and records Ancestry helped uncover. The tour meets at Chicago Women’s Park & Garden, 1801 S. Indiana Ave.
Ancestry mural at 38 W. Grand Ave. highlights Mary Emerson Haven and Margaret Hie Ding Lin
As part of the tour, a mural sponsored by Ancestry was installed at 38 W. Grand Ave. Downtown. The mural spotlights Mary Emerson Haven, identified as the founder of YWCA Chicago, and physician Margaret Hie Ding Lin, who delivered babies for Chicago’s Chinese community when discrimination kept many Asian women from hospitals.
Ancestry describes the mural as part of a project using historical records—including census documents, yearbooks and newspaper archives—to uncover overlooked stories of women whose contributions to Chicago were often minimized or missing from official histories., Ancestry genealogist Nicka Sewell-Smith said women’s contributions were often reduced to narrow or domestic labels in historical documents, even when their impact was far greater.
Sewell-Smith also said that tracing women in historical records can feel like “a game of hide-and-seek, ” citing how many documents listed women only by their husbands’ names or described them as “keeping house, ” which could obscure accomplishments and complicate efforts to reconstruct their lives.
Women’s History Month listings include Navy Pier markets and “Still I Rise”
Other Chicago-area programming tied to Women’s History Month is also listed across March. A weekend roundup for the first weekend of March included a free Women’s Makers Market at Navy Pier, running from noon to 6 p. m. on Saturdays in March, featuring women artisans, designers and entrepreneurs.
That same roundup listed “Still I Rise, ” described as an “empowered tribute to women who break molds, blaze trails, and rise, ” with Deeply Rooted Dance Theater joining Chicago Sinfonietta at the Harris Theater on Randolph Street.
Separate listings included a Women’s History Month celebration at Grande Prairie Library in Hazel Crest with a free discussion and signing of a book titled Fearless Authenticity at 3 p. m., plus additional entertainment events scheduled throughout March in the Chicago region.
For readers looking for a direct answer to when is national women’s day, the event information provided in these March listings centers on Women’s History Month programming and does not identify a National Women’s Day date.
Next on the calendar, “The Women Who Built Chicago” bus tour is scheduled to open to the public on March 21, followed by March 22 and March 28, with the tour meeting at Chicago Women’s Park & Garden, 1801 S. Indiana Ave., and the Women’s Makers Market continuing Saturdays in March from noon to 6 p. m. ET.
